Projeto e construção de uma extrusora como alternativa na melhoria da produção de fertilizantes foliares

Abstract

The agribusiness sector has stood out in the search for technological innovations that meet the needs of the market, mainly due to the exacerbated population growth and consequent rise in the demand of food production. In this scenario, fertilization is applied as a solution for the healthy growth of vegetables, as they provide a greater amount of nutrients, making the plant more resistant and reducing the need for the application of pesticides. In this context, the extrusion granulation technique emerges as an innovation for agribusiness. This work aims to apply the method for the production of foliar fertilizers of high dispersion (granulates), adding value to the product, evaluating characteristics such as solubility, homogeneity, stability, storage, transport and application. After the design and construction of the single-phase extruder, the solvents and additives to be used in the extrusion process were determined. Afterwards, the optimum operating condition was determined statistically from a Central Composite Designs (CCD) and afterwards the best test was replicated in the extruder in order to evaluate the effects on the response variables: solubility time, nutrient content and pH, for different extrusion rates. The solvents selected after compatibility studies with the fertilizer used were anhydrous alcohol and propylene glycol; and the additive was the PVP. From the CCD analysis, it was decided to implement in the extruder the experiment 3, which presents 0.5% PVP, 15% alcohol, 2% propylene and 82.5% of the foliar fertilizer, evaluating different rates of extrusion (30, 45 and 60 Hz). Among these, it was concluded that the most productive was 60 Hz, in addition to presenting better dispersibility in comparison with the others. Analyzes of nutrient content and pH proved that there are no losses in the composition of the product guaranteeing the extrusion process. It is worth mentioning that the solubility time when compared with the standard product did not behave as expected due to the high mass compaction. On the other hand, the process of extrusion of the foliar fertilizer guarantees to the product better conservation of the homogeneity of distribution of the components, ease of flow and superior resistance, generating operational and environmental gains, besides also guaranteeing greater added value.